Sen. Feinstein's New Assault Weapons Ban

The AR-15 has been used in a number of recent mass shootings

(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) - On February 14, 2018, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) joined by 24 Democrats introduced new legislation that would ban AR-15s, which is the most popular rifle in the U.S. According to Sen. Feinstein, an AR-15 is a military weapon. No militaries use civilian AR-15s.

The new Feinstein bill will also prohibit the ownership, manufacture, or sale of bump stocks. The proposed legislation is similar to the 10-year 1994 Assault Weapons ban that was implemented by Congress under then-president Bill Clinton but allowed to lapse in 1994.

The gunman in the Parkland, Florida mass killing used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.

The AR-15, which the National Rifle Association calls "America's Rifle," has been used as the primary weapon in a number of other highly publicized mass shootings in recent years.

Common sense should tell us that such rifles have no use in hunting and are unnecessarily powerful as home defense weapons. Let’s face it, an AR-15 is not for hunting, it's for killing. It is time to ban such weapons.

As the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Tardy v. Hogan, certain kinds of rifles, including assault rifles, are not “weapons of war,” meaning they are not covered under the Second Amendment for the purpose of self-defense.

Prognosticators have already predicted that the bill has very little chance of passing the Senate and even if it made it through the Senate, it would be dead on arrival in the House Of Representatives. If by some miracle it made it through Congress, President Trump would probably veto it almost immediately.

Will this attempt for an assault weapons ban fall to defeat? Will we, again, have to grit our teeth and wait for the next mass shooting that will come as surely as night follows day?